Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas – Professor, historian, Rector of Vilnius University.

Mykhailo Glubokyi - Development director, Izolyatsia (Ukraine).

Mykhailo Glubokyi has been a part of the foundation since 2011, implementing site-specific, participatory community-oriented cultural projects and contributing to turning various industrial sites into vibrant cultural spaces. Since 2021, he has also been a board member of one of the oldest European networks of cultural centres, Trans Europe Halles, and a member of the consortium implementing the Creative Europe mobility scheme for artists and cultural professionals, “i-Portunus”. Since 2019, Mykhailo has focused on collaboration with local communities, capacity building for rural areas, support for cultural decentralisation and international collaborations, programs, and exchanges, especially in the East of Ukraine and Eastern and Central European regions. Also, beginning in 2014, he has been involved in developing the IZONE creative hub as well as residencies and educational programs for creative entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural professionals. Since 2022 he has been involved in various programmes to support Ukrainian displaced communities, and artists and cultural professionals affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Michel Duclos - Diplomat and Special Advisor and Resident Senior Fellow, Geopolitics and Diplomacy at Institut Montaigne (France).

Montaigne, is a diplomat. He served as a Counselor in French Embassies in Moscow and Bonn. Head of the disarmament department at the Quai d’Orsay from 1994 to 1998, Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee in the EU, from 2000 to 2002, Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations from 2002 to 2006, he was Ambassador of France to Syria from 2006 to 2009. He is the author of several books, the last one being Guerre en Ukraine et nouvel ordre du monde (2023), co-edited by Institut Montaigne and Editions de l'Observatoire.

Stéphanie Goncalves - Assistant Curator at House of European History (France / Belgium).

Stéphanie Gonçalves is a historian and assistant curator at the House of European History in Brussels, in charge of publications. In 2015, she defended her doctoral thesis at the Université libre de Bruxelles on the cultural diplomacy of ballet during the Cold War. She published the book Danser pendant la guerre froide (1945-1968) in 2018 with Presses Universitaires de Rennes. She is particularly interested in the transnational circulation of dancers.

Maximilien Durand - Director of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Arts at Musée du Louvre (France).

Born in 1976, Maximilien Durand is a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre and holds a Master of Advanced Study in hagiographic texts from the Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études). From 2007 to 2008, he was the scientific director of the NGO “Patrimoine sans Frontiers”, before joining the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris as head of conservation and restoration from 2008 to 2011. Director of the Musée des Tissus and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon from 2011 to 2017, then Head of Conservation at Christian Dior Couture from 2018 to 2019, since January 2021 he has been Deputy Director of Collections and Research at Paris Musées and Curator of the Paris Catacombs. A teacher at the Ecole du Louvre and the author of numerous publications, Maximilien Durand has organised more than twenty-five exhibitions (including “Antinoë, à la vie, à la mode visions d’élégance dans les solitudes” at the Musée des Tissus in Lyon in 2013/2014). He has also been vice president of the Centre International d'Étude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA) and president of the International Association for the Study of the Silk Roads Textiles. Additionally, he has led international projects, in particular in regions covered by the regional focus of the future Louvre department – Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Belarus and Russia – on the conservation, restoration and promotion of the heritage of Orthodox communities in the Byzantine tradition. He also completed a scientific study of the collection of Byzantine and Coptic textiles at the Lloyd Cotsen Foundation in Los Angeles.

Cornel-Florin Moraru - Philosopher and cultural journalist (Romania).

Bachaar Tarabay - Scientific Project Manager, Iconem (France).

Bachaar Tarabay, a graduate of Architecture and Heritage from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris Belleville (ENSA-PB) in July 2018, has been serving as the Head of Scientific Projects at ICONEM since July 2022. Currently, he oversees scientific projects in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, KSA, Oman, Syria, and others. His introduction to photogrammetry at Parrot AirSupport provided him with a new perspective on heritage, allowing him to contribute to projects involving internationally renowned monuments such as Mont Saint-Michel. His journey with ICONEM began with a photogrammetric study of the area affected by the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, where he collaborated with UNESCO.

Constantin Sigov - Philosopher, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv (Ukraine).

Ukrainian philosopher Constantin Sigov, in charge of the European Centre at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, was Associate Research Director at the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris from 1992 to 1995. He helped compile the Vocabulaire européen des philosophies (Paris, Seuil/Le Robert, 2004) and founded the Duh i litera (Spirit and Letter) publishing house in Kyiv, which has published authoritative Ukrainian translations of great thinkers such as Montaigne, Descartes, Pascal, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas and François Furet. A friend of Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor, he hosted them at the University of Kyiv. For his tireless work building bridges between cultures, Constantin Sigov was decorated by France with the rank of Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académique. In 2014, he supported the Maidan Revolution, of which he was a leading voice. His personal work as a thinker, occupying an important place in the Slavic world, has a strong international following.

Dejan Ubovic - Director of GRAD – European Center for Culture and Debate (Serbia).

Dejan Ubovic studied anthropology and project management in Belgrade. In the late ‘90s, he was working as a journalist on at that time independent radio stations - Studio B and then Radio B92 where he initiated the first weekly radio show after the war in the Balkans which included 14 cities/radio stations from all countries of former Yugoslavia. At the same time (march 2000.) he was a founder of Cultural Front NGO. CF was the leading organization in many different projects in Serbia as well as across the Balkans– regional festivals, conferences, exhibitions etc. In 2009, he founded and became the director of European Center for Culture and Debate - GRAD in a former industrial building in the area of the riverfront in central Belgrade. Grad was a joint project of Cultural Front and Felix Meritis Center from Amsterdam to establish a sustainable cultural centre in Serbia. In the first decade, Grad became a meeting point and “safe house” for many young initiatives, organizations and events, such as Pride Week, civil society organizations dealing in different fields, independent publishing houses, etc. In 2012. he was a founder of the Association of Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia which today has more than 80 members and is oriented to advocacy regarding the civil society ecosystem in Serbia. In 2020. he initiated “Museum of the ‘90s” as a regional centre for reconciliation, education and future cooperation. He is also an active member of the Strategy group of a European initiative “A Soul for Europe”.

Eeva Eek-Pajuste - Advisor to the Policy Planning Department at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Former Director of the Lennart Meri Conference (Estonia).

Eeva Eek-Pajuste recently served for five years as director of the Lennart Meri conference (high-scale international security and foreign policy annual conference in Tallinn, Estonia) in the ICDS think tank. In September 2023 she joined the policy planning group in the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) of Estonia. Previously she has worked in several diplomatic posts in MFA of Estonia, served in Estonian embassies in Riga, Paris, Washington DC and Estonian Representation to the EU in Brussels. Graduated (MA) from Tartu University as a historian with a speciality in ethnology. Bestowed by the president of Estonia The Order of the White Star for services rendered in government service, and several other governmental rewards. Composer of two volumes of re-establishing foreign service in Estonia (Second Coming, Story of Re-establishing Foreign Service).

Valerio Rocco Lozano - Director of Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid (Spain).

Alongside “Circulo de Bellas Artes”, Valerio Rocco Lozano is a member of the Culture Council of the Madrid Region, of the Social Council of the Rey Juan Carlos University and the Advising Committee of the Royal Theatre of Madrid. He is also an Associate Professor of History of Modern Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he has been Vice-Dean for Research and Innovation (2015-2019) and Director of the MA in “Philosophy of History” (2011-2019). His main research interests are the History of Modern Philosophy (in particular German Idealism –Hegel–), the Philosophy of History and Philosophy of Europe, and the Philosophy of Failure. He is currently Tasks Leader of the European Research Project (Horizon 2020) entitled “FAILURE. Reversing the Genealogies of Unsuccess, 16th-19th Centuries”. He has recently published a book entitled La vieja Roma en el joven Hegel, Madrid, 2011, and he has edited the work of Franco Volpi: Martin Heidegger. Aportes a la filosofía, Madrid, 2011.

Dr. Arūnas Gelūnas - Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (Lithuania).

Arūnas Gelūnas has been Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art since 2019. From 2016 to 2019, he was a member of The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, chairman of the French-Lithuanian Friendship Group and vice-chairman of the European Affairs Committee. He resigned from his parliamentary position in 2019 to take up the post of director of the National Museum of Arts, which oversees 9 museums in Lithuania, as well as a major art restoration centre. Arūnas Gelūnas was also Lithuania’s Minister of Culture during the governance of Andrius Kubilius between 2010 and 2012 (curators) followed by an engagement as Lithuania's Permanent Representative to UNESCO from 2012 to 2016. Arūnas Gelūnas began his career as a painter before organising several exhibitions of paintings in Lithuania as well as in France and Japan. In 2001, he defended his thesis at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas devoted to the new paradigm of order in the philosophy of Nishida and Merleau-Ponty. Between 2004 and 2010, he was vice-rector of the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts.

Kateryna Chuyeva - Expert on museum and cultural heritage management and former Deputy Minister of Culture and Information (Ukraine).

From September 2021 until August 2023, Kateryna Chuyeva was the Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and deputy Chair of the National Commission for UNESCO Affairs (ex officio). She worked with the Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv (1998-2021), evolving from technician to Director General in 2018-2021 and curating multiple exhibitions. She has been a member of the supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Institute (ever since 2021) and of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund (2020-2021). In 2014, she co-founded the NGO Maidan Museum and took part in the Maidan Museum Initiative (now - the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum). She is a board member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) (since 2008), of ICOM Ukraine (Board member from 2012-2019, President from 2019-2021), of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (since 2011), and of the International Committee of Memorial Museums of Victims of Public Crimes (ICMEMO).

Prof. Kristupas Sabolius - Philosopher, Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of Vilnius University (Lithuania).

Kristupas Sabolius is a professor of philosophy at Vilnius University (Lithuania) and a research affiliate at MIT (Climate Visions). His recent publications include On the Real (2021, ed. Kristupas Sabolius, LAPAS books), Matter and Imagination. Hybrid Creativity between Science and Art (2018, Vilnius University Press, ed.), Proteus and the Radical Imaginary (2015, Bunkier Sztuki, CAC) The Imaginary (2013, Vilnius University Press), signalizing the contradictory function of imagination between Western and Indigenous thought. Sabolius was a member of the Swamp School curatorial team at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018, curated by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas). He is also a writer of novels and film scripts, including The Gambler (2014) and Invisible (2019), both co-written with director Ignas Jonynas.

Violeta Kachakova - Culture manager, producer, researcher and cultural policy consultant (North Macedonia).

Violetta Kachakova is a researcher, engaged in contemporary art and cultural production through collaborations with local and global cultural players and stakeholders. As a researcher and consultant, she contributes to the development of national and local policies and strategies in the field of culture. She works to advance the skills and working conditions in the cultural sector and advocates for the rights of independent artists and cultural workers.

Inga Vidugirytė-Pakerienė, Director of the Institute for Literary, Cultural and Translation Studies at Vilnius University (Lithuania), associate professor at the Centre for Comparative Literature Studies.

Inga Vidugirytė-Pakerienė is the author of the books “Balmont’s Lithuania” (2005), “Culture of Laughter” (2012), “Gogol and the Geographical Imagination of Romanticism” (2018). She teaches Modern Literature of East and Central Europe, Literature and Space, and Culture of Laughter. At the moment, she does her research in urban aspects of contemporary Lithuanian women’s literature. In 2017–2020, she worked as a Cultural Attaché at the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow.

Maciej Hofman - EU Affairs Advisor for Amsterdam-based European Cultural Foundation (Netherlands).

Maciej Hofman is an EU Affairs Advisor for the Amsterdam-based European Cultural Foundation, working with the Foundation on its Cultural Deal for Europe campaign and European Cultural Deal for Ukraine appeal. He also works independently as an external expert for the European Commission and EU-funded projects in Poland. Since 2022, he is also a Jury Member of the European Heritage Awards (Europa Nostra Awards). From 2015 to 2021, Maciej Hofman worked at the Cultural Policy Unit of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC). During his time at the Commission, among others, he was involved in negotiating COVID-19 national recovery and resilience plans, supervised peer-learning schemes for local authorities and led the revamp of the Commission’s communication on culture and EU funding. Before this, Maciej Hofman worked at the Polish Ministry of Culture; Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the EU; British Council offices in Paris and Warsaw as well as a freelance translator for Polish film festivals, museums and cultural urban projects.

Fabrice Puchault - Head of Society and Culture Department, Arte France (France).

Born in 1965, Fabrice Puchault studied literature and is a graduate of the French National Film School (FEMIS). An independent documentary producer (1992-2003), he joined France Télévisions in 2003, working for France 3 network, in charge of the Nature, Science and Discovery programmes and international co-productions. He joined France 2 in November 2005, where he was Deputy Artistic Director for magazines and documentaries, then Secretary-General for the channel's programming (2008-2011), before being appointed Director of France 2's documentary programming unit in 2011.
Since February 2016, he has been Director of ARTE France's Society and Culture unit, encompassing documentaries and magazines dealing with Investigation, Geopolitics, Society, History, Culture and Creative documentaries.

Mareike Dittmer - Director of Public Engagement at TBA21 (Spain).

Mareike Dittmer is the Director of public engagement at TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, a leading international art and advocacy foundation created in 2002 by the philanthropist and collector Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. With her background in transdisciplinary collaborations and art publishing, Mareike is building public support for TBA21's and TBA21–Academy's mission and vision. Weaving a shared narrative across the constellations and collaborations of TBA21 she believes in art’s transformative potential within societies and ecosystems. From 2018 to 2020 Mareike was the director of Art Stations Foundation CH / Muzeum Susch, where she conceived and chaired the annual transdisciplinary forum Disputaziuns Susch. From 2016 to 2018, together with Julieta Aranda, she chaired the 9th Futurological Congress convening in Warsaw, Tel Aviv and Munich. Until 2018 Mareike was the associate publisher of Frieze magazine and co-founder of the magazine’s Berlin office which she co-headed with Jörg Heiser since 2001. Since 2019, Mareike has also been a lecturer in the BFA at ZHdK, the Zurich Art Academy.

Jakub Depczyński - Graduated in art history from the Faculty of Management of Visual Culture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Currently works in the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw as a researcher and curator of public programs. He is particularly interested in postartistic practices, the relationship between technology and art, art in the face of the planetary climate and environmental crisis and contemporary ecological thought. Jakub is one of the creators of the Atlas of the Anti-fascist Year - a social archive of anti-fascist and anti-war activities and attitudes in culture, art and other walks of life, as well as a co-founder of the Office for Postartistic Services and Sunflower Solidary Community Center.

Vilius Bartninkas - Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University and the Head of the Department of Classical Philology (Lithuania).

Marija Drėmaitė - Professor at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University (Lithuania).

Dr. Ina Ėmužienė 

In 2018 she defended her doctoral dissertation in humanities at Vytautas Magnus University. She works at National Museum of Lithuania as a researcher and exhibition curator. Since 2022 has been implementing postdoctoral internship at Vilnius University; theme of research is ‘Soviet Lithuanian Public Communication for the Lithuanian Diaspora in North America (1944–1991): Participants, Channels, Responses’.

She did internships at Universities of Warsaw, Illinois, Bournemouth and the Archives of American Lithuanians, research and study center in the USA. Since 2016 she has been a member of the Entangled Media History Network. Ina Ėmužienė participated in scientific conferences, delivered reports in Latvia, the USA, Sweden, Great Britain, etc. She takes an active part in promotion and dissemination of history science, coordinates and provides mentoring of historical exhibitions.